Patriots stat of the season? (through Week 16 for all but Philadelphia).

Net Turnovers
1. New England: 27 (Takeaways- 24 INTs, 12 fumbles; Giveaways- 5 INTs, 4 fumbles)
2. Pittsburgh: 14 (Takeaways- 18 INTs, 14 fumbles; Giveaways- 9 INTs, 9 fumbles)
3. Philadelphia: 14 (Takeaways- 23 INTs, 9 fumbles; Giveaways- 9 INTS, 9 fumbles)
4. Atlanta- 13
5. Green Bay- 10
5. Kansas City- 10
7. Tampa Bay- 8

Everbody else has no more than +5.


Patriots have:
1. fewest giveaway INTs in the NFL
2. fewest giveaway fumbles in the NFL
3. most takeaway INTs in the NFL
4. only tied for 9th in takeaway fumbles in the NFL

Those are great stats. It's amazing the lack of turnovers.

I enjoy the fact that neither Green-Ellis nor Woodhead has lost a fumble in their entire careers. 419 carries combined without a fumble.

That's just awesome.

How does Brandon Meriweather make the pro-bowl this year? The voting has to be a joke if that guy gets in.

Very happy to see McCordy get in though. He's been fantastic all year.

Meriweather does not deserve the pro bowl. Its strange that 4 patriots defenders including 2 from the secondary make the pro bowl. All this despite being 27th in YA and 30th in PYA. But the offense, which is 1 of the top in the league, gets only 2 players in pro bowl.

Pats are not about individual accolades anyways.

I jumped into this thread late and am not sure if this was discussed earlier, but what are your thoughts on BB having no named O and D coordinators this year?

I know prior to the season I was really worried since BB himself said his biggest mistake in Cleveland was not delegating enough. Plus he admitted after last year that a big problem was not having coordinators that felt comfortable disagreeing with him. So it seemed to me a huge mistake going into the year without coordinators.

Obviously that concern turned out to be unfounded and now I'm just left wondering what the scoop is internally (although it seems O'Brian clearly runs the offense) and why the decision was taken.

I think it's a joke BMW made the probowl but I'm glad because it might help Belichick get more than he should for him when he dumps his arse. (Which I think he will after this year.)

I think a reasonable case could be made for Wilfork, Mccourty, and Mayo to make the Pro Bowl for sure. Im not convinced Merriweather sucks, but crazy that he made the roster.

I think its quick remarkable that there are no coordinators. It may be just a title thing however. Perhaps BB would rather have direct control of the defense and not have middle mgmt in the way. I don't think the prior DC was very good.

BB has discussed his workload/delegation a few times. His answer that I have heard recently I think on WEEI interview is that he is working the same amount of hours this year as in the past. (probably a crazy amount of hours watching film!) He said that in the past he had a roving role anyways where he would jump into areas that he felt required his attention whether it be roster, special teams, offense, defense, etc. He probably still has the roving role but maybe runs the meetings.

Also I believe in the Patriot Reign book, the description of the coaching was that it was a mindshare group with frequent meetings where all opinions from all coaches was sought in developing the game plan, etc. This dynamic likely still exists.

In the past, the team has lost its coordinators. Perhaps in an effort to keep coaches on the team, they think its wise to not promote anybody to coordinator level to prevent other teams from getting a new head coach. Mangini and McDaniels spent 1 or 2 seasons as coordinator and then got head coach opportunities. So perhaps this is an effort to hold onto talented coaches.

Perhaps the philosophy about coaching is the same about players = better to have a great team than great individuals. So rather than have a hotshot coordinator, instead have a team of assistants who are competent.

From wiki article about patriots strategy and philosophy:
"Their emphasis on team, equality among players and lack of individual ego;" This can be applied to coaching too.

Whatever the reasons, it seemed to have no adverse affects and perhaps is a good thing.

Trust in BB!

If the Patriots win on Sunday against the Dolphins, Belichick would become the first head coach ever to win at least 14 regular-season games in four separate seasons.

prolly variance just like all those run good postseasons.

This is amazing. I bet that there are very few players left over from the 2003/2004 14-2 teams. It's almost a completely different roster other than the most important player Brady. I just looked at profootballreference .com. The only other 2003 starters besides Brady on the roster now are Deion Branch, Kevin Faulk (not playing now,) Matt Light, Dan Koppen. 5 offensive players left from 2003. Tully Banta-Cain and Ty Warren were on that team also. 2 defensive players left from 2003. That's it!

Has any team ever reloaded/rebuilt without going down like this? I guess the only team is the San Francisco 49ers in the 80's and 90's who won at least 10 games per year for a very long time. I guess the Packers, Cowboys, and Steelers maintained their roster and went thru declines before they rebuilt.

We have to appreciate what is happening with this Patriots team. The dynasty is almost unprecedented. They need a few more Lombardi trophies to truly go down as greatest dynasty ever. I hope they seal the deal this year. With all the youth and draft picks, the future looks good too.

Whatever is required to keep Belichik coaching, Kraft must do it.

I think Kraft is smart enough to realize what he has...and BB, having been around the NFL his whole lifer, appreciates working for a non meddlesome owner who is ok with spending money. and most importantly, he has his historically great QB to build around, along with all these picks he has acquired.

I think they will be together at least until Brady is gone

I would start to get worried if you see him stop trading players and picks for future picks

Just taking a few moments today to appreciate a truly remarkable season...obviously Brady had a season like no one else has ever had, but other incredible stuff like shaving 24% off the lowest turnovers in a season record and also the incredible job done in the past draft and incredible coaching all year round.

And getting so lucky in turnovers

AFC Playoffs are set up.

Byes
#1 New England Patriots
#2 Pittsburgh Steelers

Next Weekend
#6 New York Jets at #3 Indianapolis Colts
#5 Baltimore Ravens at #4 Kansas City Chiefs


Based simply on Points per Game, the Patriots appear to have a good draw. They are less likely to meet the dangerous offensive teams early in the playoffs. In addition to the San Diego Chargers missing the playoffs, the Colts getting the #3 seed means they can't face the Patriots until the AFC Championship.

The other teams should finish outside the top 10 in pts/gm with nobody impressing in the passing game.

Pittsburgh and Baltimore have elite defense, but the Pats put up 39 in Pittsburgh in Week 10. I'm not worried about the Pats being able to score.



Edit:

Patriots will play the late (4:30pm) game on Sunday, January 16.

http://blogs.nfl.com/2011/01/02/wild...=breaking_news


NFL WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, January 8

NFC: 4:30 PM (ET) New Orleans at St. Louis/Seattle (NBC-TV)
AFC: 8:00 PM (ET) New York Jets at Indianapolis (NBC-TV)

Sunday, January 9

AFC: 1:00 PM (ET) Baltimore at Kansas City (CBS-TV)

NFC: 4:30 PM (ET) Green Bay at Philadelphia (FOX-TV)

NFL DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS

Saturday, January 15

AFC: 4:30 PM (ET) Indianapolis or Kansas City or Baltimore at Pittsburgh (CBS-TV)
NFC: 8:00 PM (ET) St. Louis/Seattle or New Orleans or Green Bay at Atlanta (FOX-TV)

Sunday, January 16

NFC: 1:00 PM (ET) Philadelphia or St. Louis/Seattle or New Orleans at Chicago (FOX-TV)

AFC: 4:30 PM (ET) Kansas City or Baltimore or New York Jets at New England (CBS-TV)

If the Rams win tonight, the Raiders would pick 17th overall in the draft, according to ESPN Stats & Information's projected order of selection.


If the Seahawks win tonight, the Raiders would pick 18th overall in the draft, although that pick could improve depending on the Seahawks' success in the playoffs.

Kind of disappointing that given that this was projected to be a top 10 pick pre-season and easily could have gone top 5 if the cards fell right. The (relative) massive success of the Raiders is the only thing I can complain about so far about this season.

Yeah, ****ing Raiders. Von Miller would be nice (the top 3-4 OLB in the draft.) Maybe they can trade up to get Von Miller?

On the bright side, Pats have 3 picks in top 33 and 9 in top 100. 5 of last 6 1st round picks are pro bowlers this year (Wilfork, Mankins, Meriweather, Mayo, McCourty.) The only 1 who didn't work out was Maroney. Mayo was the highest pick at 10 Wilfork next at 21. (I'm ignoring Ben Watson who was the 2nd 1st rnd pick in Wilfork's year.) With the plethora of picks, the Pats ability to draft good players late in the 1st round, and an already very young team, the future is incredibly bright for this team.

I think the playoff seeding went about as well as could be expected. to begin with, Chiefs in instead of Chargers

then, having Colts move up to 3 means there is a good chance we play either the Chiefs or Jets in our 1st game. they are both small dogs, but I think it's close to 70% that one of them wins this week

then we would have a tough game in AFC Championship

and in the NFC, it's great that neither of the 2 best teams got byes, and on top of that they need to play each other in the 1st round (Packers v Eagles)

2 most likely teams to advance to SB in NFC are the Falcons and Bears

KB4Z, you really think 70% for either the Jets or Chiefs? I haven't done the math, but I fully expect the Colts and Ravens to roll, and Baltimore coming to town. I'd be delighted if it were otherwise, though.

it's something around there, yeah

Chiefs are +124, Jets +118

those are both close games, like 56/44 ish or something close to that

to be clear, I mean the odds of EITHER of those teams winning is nearly 70%.

The Colts suck. The Jets are better by a decent margin. Only reason Colts are favored is they are at home.

That picture is a lot better than the Brady O-face they used as the cover of MMQB yesterday (not up anymore, not sure how to find it).